Related:

• World Aids Day -  U.S. CDC: Less than One Third Have HIV Under Control: Humanitarian Resource Institute, 30 November 2011.

--------------------------------------------------------------

28 November 2011

From: Stephen M. Apatow
Founder, Director of Research & Development
Humanitarian Resource Institute
Humanitarian University Consortium Graduate Studies
Center for Medicine, Veterinary Medicine & Law
Phone: 203-668-0282
Email: s.m.apatow@humanitarian.net
Internet: www.humanitarian.net

United Nations Arts Initiative
Arts Integration Into Education
Url: www.unarts.org
Twitter: unarts

Millennium Medicine Project
Url: http://www.pathobiologics.org/mmp



Global Fund to Fight AIDS - International Public Health/Economic Emergency

On Thursday, an official with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said that they have been forced to cease giving new grants until 2014 because of global economic woes brought on by debt crises in the United States and Europe. [1]  This devastating news comes as the humanitarian organizations ONE and (RED)  are coordinating an expert panel, in conjunction with World AIDS Day, that will include PresidentsBill Clinton and George W. Bush; Bono, co-founder of ONE and (RED); Alicia Keys, co-founder of Keep a Child Alive; and other leaders. [2] 

Our question for Presidents Bill Clinton (1993-2001) and George W. Bush (2001-2009)  is: How can world leaders best confront the international public health emergency associated with HIV/AIDS, during an international economic emergency period?

As outlined the 2006 Pathobiologics International background discussion: Africa - International Public Health Emergency: [3]

The area in Africa south of the Sahara desert, known as sub-Saharan Africa, is by far the worst-affected in the world by the AIDS epidemic. The region has just over 10% of the world's population, but is home to over 60% of all people living with HIV. An estimated 3.1 million adults and children became infected with HIV during the year 2005. This brought the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the region to 25.8 million by the end of the year. HIV prevalence varies considerably across this region - ranging from less than 1% in Mauritania and Senegal to almost 40% in Botswana and Swaziland. -- Sub-Saharan Africa: Avert.

Although HIV/AIDS has reached almost every part of the world, no other region has been harder hit than sub-Saharan Africa, home to nearly three quarters of the world’s people living with HIV/AIDS. By the end of 2002, over 29 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were living with HIV/AIDS. Of those, 10 million were young people (aged 15-24) and almost 3 million were children under 15. In 2002 alone, about 2 million adults died of HIV/AIDS in the region. -- Africa's Orphaned Generations: UNICEF.

Eight out of every 10 children who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1990 and 2001, the proportion of orphans whose parents died from HIV/AIDS rose from 3.5 per cent to 32 per cent. There are more than 34 million orphans in the region today, 11 million of them orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Total number of orphans due to AIDS, 2003:
 
Nigeria:   1,800,000
South Africa:   1,100,000
Tanzania:   980,000
Zimbabwe:   980,000
Uganda:   940,000
DR Congo:   770,000
Ethiopia:   720,000
Zambia:   630,000
 
By 2003, 15 million children under 18 had been orphaned by HIV/AIDS worldwide.  About 12 million of these live in sub-Saharan Africa, and it is expected that this number will have risen to more than 18 million by 2010.  Most of the AIDS orphans who live outside of Africa live in Asia, where the total number of orphans - orphaned for all reasons - exceeds 87 million. There is however insufficient information in Asia to provide figures for the number of AIDS orphans in individual countries.

Infrastructure Stabilization During an International Economic Emergency

The S&P 500 had it's worst Thanksgiving week since the stock market crash of 1932, [4] caused by a speculative bubble manufactured by the mistakes of the Federal Reserve Board, following the crash of 1929. [5]  In response to the 1932  crash,  the Banking Act of 1933 or Glass-Steagall Act [6] was enacted as an emergency measure to to separate commercial and investment banking.  In 1999, the Glass Steagall Act was repealed by Congress,  removing the wall of separation between commercial and investment banks, that protected financial markets for close to 70 years.

The historic Y2K transition encompassed global risk management and contingency planning efforts, that required reserve bank emergency funds to support remediation efforts in 192 UN member countries. [7]  The repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 served as a vehicle to transition these emergency reserve bank funds directly into speculative trading activities, further supported by the unregulated OTC derivatives market (deregulated via the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000). [8]   

In 2008, world financial markets crashed and leaders were called to address the variables that caused the international economic emergency.  These appeals were ignored.  Today, history repeats itself, as the EU crisis threatens the global financial system.   Continuing the appeal from 2008, we call upon world leaders to (1) restore Glass-Steagall protections and (2) provide legal tools to address the interrelated damage and distortions attributed to unregulated market activities during the 1999-2011 period.  The objective is simple "To avoid the next phase of the crisis that followed the 1932 crash and Banking Act of 1933.... The Great Depression. [9] 

References:

1. Global health fund halts new programs: CBS News, 24 November 2011. Url: www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57331033/massive-global-health-fund-says-its-broke/
2.  Join Presidents Bush, Clinton, plus Bono and Alicia Keys this World AIDS Day on YouTube: Broadcasting Ourselves, 23 November 2011. Url: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/11/join-presidents-bush-clinton-plus-bono.html
3. Africa - International Public Health Emergency: Pathobiologics International, November 2006.  Url: http://www.pathobiologics.org/btac/UNIHR1292007.html
4.  S&P 500 Has Worst Thanksgiving Week Since ’32: Bloomberg, 25 November 2011. Url: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-25/s-p-500-has-worst-thanksgiving-week-since-32-amid-europe-crisis.html
5.  The 1929 Stock Market Crash:  Harold Bierman, Jr., Cornell University. Url:  http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Bierman.crash
6. Bring Back Glass-Steagall?: History News Network, George Mason University.  Url: http://hnn.us/articles/55548.html
7. Contingency Planning: Year 2000 Conversion: Global Infrastructure Analysis: Humanitarian Resource Institute. Url: http://www.humanitarian.net/contingency.html
8. The Warning: PBS Frontline. Url: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/
9. H-II Appeal to Nobel Laureates - HRI: Humanitarian University Consortium: Humanitarian Resource Institute, 9 July 2011. Url: http://www.humanitarian.net/idin/ref/772011IDIN.html


###